Chapter 169

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“President. About the South American region you recommended to Sentinel last time.”

“Ah, yes.”

“I looked into it separately, and apparently war risk is at an all-time high.”

“War?”

War talk is tiresome at this point.

Isn’t the Russo-Ukrainian war still ongoing?

“Venezuela and Guyana are currently in a dispute over territory, and Venezuela has deployed troops at the border so they can use force at any time.”

I didn’t know this.

How many places are there with territorial disputes?

But the territorial dispute between those two countries is said to be nearly 200 years old.

“Originally, Venezuela didn’t really care about Guyana either. Then when massive oil and natural gas were discovered in the Esquibo region, Venezuela started claiming sovereignty.”

“Didn’t they say there are a lot of minerals in the Guyana area too?”

“Yes, gold, iron ore, bauxite, and so on, lots of minerals. Apparently uranium was even discovered in that area, so many companies have conducted surveys.”

Maybe that’s why.

Suddenly China and Russia declared support for Venezuela and claimed their territory should be returned.

“There’s some ulterior motive. Gold, iron ore, oil, natural gas, and uranium. the place is full of things worth drooling over.”

The two countries had plenty of reason to covet it.

“Since we’re trying to establish a base near Guyana’s territorial waters this time, we need the Guyana government’s permission. The problem is they said if we want to establish a Sentinel base there, we need to meet one condition.”

“What condition?”

“They want us to invest in them like we did in Nigeria.”

“Excuse me?”

“Didn’t our Sentinel invest in Nigeria and dramatically improve their navy? Thanks to that, they’re successfully blocking surrounding pirates. They must have found that attractive.”

The military gap between Venezuela and Guyana is extremely severe.

The forces Venezuela can currently mobilize number 150,000.

In contrast, Guyana has only 5,000, and naturally no navy either.

It was an overwhelming difference in power. if Venezuela attacked right now, they could more than conquer Guyana.

But what’s stopping Venezuela is the US military.

Just as China and Russia support Venezuela, America supports Guyana.

Isn’t neighboring Brazil also criticizing Venezuela for pressuring Guyana?

In other words, if Venezuela starts a war here, the US military will intervene.

Also, the US conducts regular joint exercises in the area near Guyana.

“The Aiden administration has been building solid relationships with allied countries around while keeping China and Russia in check. But with the Aiden administration’s collapse into a vegetable regime, Guyana is apparently terrified now.”

“Won’t America still try to protect its allies?”

“With the government effectively paralyzed right now, if Venezuela starts a war, it’ll be hard for America to react immediately. Whether they’ll really dispatch forces for an ally is uncertain too. Because the candidate the Republicans are pushing for the next presidency, Trent, has the opposite disposition from Aiden.”

President Trent in his previous term and now too.

He claims America should no longer play the role of world police.

He’s also raising his voice saying allies are all freeloaders bleeding America dry, so they should either cut off alliances entirely or create new agreements to make them pay massive defense costs.

“Trent hasn’t even become president yet, but he’s already making noise. He’s lumping together everyone from our country to Japan and other allies, so Guyana is anxious too.”

The person called Trent is really something.

A peculiar fellow.

Honestly, right now with the Republicans crushing the Democrats like this was the perfect timing for Trent to boost his approval ratings.

Yet he spouts nonsense every other day, eroding his own approval ratings.

“Trent knows too. That there’s no one else to challenge for the next presidency but him. But the Democrats seem to see this as an opportunity too. Since Trent will erode his own approval by himself, they’re leaving him alone to rant rather than picking fights.”

The Republicans have seized a perfect opportunity to flip presidential power.

But thanks to Trent, I wonder if power will slip back to the Democrats.

“Anyway, for those reasons, Guyana is demanding investment from us.”

“When they say investment… they mean military investment, right? Getting us to invest in the navy like Nigeria so they can get help with surrounding escorts.”

“That’s right. And this area is suffering tremendously because of criminal organizations. Before we established Sentinel, the Caribbean is becoming increasingly chaotic due to criminal organizations, just like Africa was. And the biggest problem is there’s too much illegal mining.”

For people doing illegal things, Guyana must have looked like a land of opportunity.

It’s reached the point where finding a place without minerals would be faster. it’s a land flowing with milk and honey.

As a result, all kinds of criminal organizations were swarming, illegal mining was occurring, and human trafficking, weapon trading, illegal drugs, and so on.

They were engulfed in serious problems.

“But the US military and other allies can’t directly solve these problems. So companies that initially came in for mining are pulling out one by one. Criminal organization numbers have grown so much that they’re constantly being attacked and plundered.”

That was unfortunate.

But it was also hard for allies to step in and handle all that individually.

With the biggest ally, America, in chaos due to internal affairs, Guyana was in dire straits.

“What Guyana wants is military investment, right?”

“Yes. Criminal organizations are running rampant, and companies that were mining are all withdrawing. So they need investment not just in the navy but also the army. So since we’re investing in military anyway, I thought we could also acquire the mines.”

“The mines?”

“Yes. What they need is protection. But this means we’re paying protection costs while getting little in return, so instead we should take all the surrounding mines. Then we’re protecting our own mines, so spending the money won’t feel wasted.”

It didn’t seem like a bad opinion.

“Do you have a map of how many mines are in that area?”

“Ah, yes. Here it is.”

Right at that moment.

As soon as I received the map from the Section Chief, numerous dots sprouted up all over that area.

“…”

When I thought about acquiring mines.

I figured it would be one or two places at most.

This looked like it needed to be done more seriously than expected.

‘But…’

How are we going to mine all these?

***

“They’re acquiring the mines?”

“Yes. And not just one or two places. Since many companies are abandoning mines due to the swarming criminal organizations, they’re going to acquire all of them and have Gwangwoon manage them now.”

“And we provide the protection?”

“Yes. The Guyana government will receive massive investment in military to strengthen their forces and sweep up surrounding criminal organizations to protect the mines. At the same time, they’ll also become a bit freer from Venezuela’s military pressure.”

Anthony Watson chuckled at the report.

Just what you’d expect from Gwangwoon.

“From one to ten, there are so many things connected to what Gwangwoon does that it’s impossible to predict.”

“Excuse me?”

“Think about it. If Gwangwoon hadn’t triggered financial crises multiple times, criminal organizations wouldn’t have grown this big, and the mines in Guyana wouldn’t have had major problems.”

“Ah,”

“And if the Aiden government wasn’t a vegetable regime and was operating normally, the Guyana government wouldn’t have asked Gwangwoon for help out of fear of when they might be attacked by Venezuela.”

“Then could this all be…?”

“That’s right. It’s all connected. Even events that seem like nothing are Gwangwoon’s steps toward their roadmap.”

During his CIA days too, hadn’t he marveled every time Gwangwoon triggered events through their connections and took what they wanted?

But seeing it vividly with his own eyes made it even more astonishing.

“Who on earth plans all of this?”

“No idea. One thing that’s certain is no single person could possibly come up with such thoughts. There’s definitely a team creating such meticulous strategies. A team that can remain dust-free no matter how hard other intelligence agencies dig.”

Any organization leaves traces when they do something.

But here, they weren’t leaving even the smallest traces. spine-chillingly so.

“Then it’ll be easy for us to deploy mercenaries there.”

“Yes. The Guyana government wants that too, and we just need to take control of that area for ourselves. But… is there really a need to go this far?”

“Of course there is. don’t you know why Gwangwoon is buying up all those mines?”

“Just because it’s a waste to invest money in Guyana’s military?”

“No. It’s because something enormous is buried in that land.”

What would that enormous thing be?

Something that has China, Russia, and America all on guard right now.

Because of one resource.

“Uranium?”

“Right. But even Gwangwoon can’t openly extract uranium. That would be advertising for people to attack them. So what should they do?”

“…Using the surrounding mines, pretend to extract other resources while extracting uranium from below? Is-isn’t this too dangerous?”

“Haha, that’s why I like it. Every day here is thrilling.”

“B-but Director! Of all things, uranium…!”

“Shh. That’s enough. We just need to do our job.”

Anthony gently brushed his hand over the map spread on the command table.

“As soon as our forces are deployed, take a close look at where Jackson Mobil is drilling.”

“This place?”

“Yes. Why do you think Gwangwoon randomly picked this spot? It’s to obtain resources needed for the empire they’re trying to create. And Jackson Mobil is just a thief stealing Gwangwoon’s resources.”

That’s why they had no intention of leaving them alone.

Jackson Mobil’s crime was that they had the audacity to stake their claim before Gwangwoon.

***

“It’s really hard to see your face these days.”

“We see each other on weekends.”

“Tsk. That’s only when we’re gaming, and you skipped last week and the week before too. Plus, meeting one-on-one like this, isn’t this really the first time in ages?”

“I’m sorry. I’ve been busy…”

“Yeah. I know. But I felt like we really needed to meet today, so I came running all the way here. Haha.”

Chairman Kang Seong-ho had definitely established himself in our Trinity Guild.

Despite joining late, he became an excellent dealer through his own skill and was still actively participating.

Since he originally didn’t have many hobbies, coming to our hideout and gaming with people was apparently the most enjoyable thing in the world for him.

“So what made you come running?”

“Ahem. I was going to drink a bit before getting to the main point… but it’s better to speak now.”

Chairman Kang Seong-ho carefully gauged my reaction as he began.

“About Guyana. I heard Gwangwoon is acquiring mines there this time.”

“Ah, yes.”

That was exactly what I had been worried about.

We were scooping up abandoned mines at cheap prices, sure.

But the problem was we didn’t have the technology to mine them.

“Can we get in on this too?”

“Excuse me?”

“I know what’s buried in Guyana too. China, Russia, and America are all drooling over it. But China and Russia are busy with Ukraine right now, and America’s internals are a complete mess.”

“That’s true.”

“Then while they’re all distracted elsewhere, we need to quickly take control of that place. It could be a game changer. We have construction companies too, and if we bring all the companies in Korea, mining shouldn’t be that hard.”

Receiving help from Korean companies.

No, more precisely, our Gwangwoon giving them subcontracts.

“What does Kangsung want?”

“Obviously there’s only one thing. What resource could be a game changer right now?”

Only then could I understand what Chairman Kang Seong-ho was talking about.

“It hasn’t been discovered yet, but apparently there’s an extremely high probability of massive rare earth deposits in that area.”

End